JOSH GATES: In the Malaysian highlands,
a mysterious hotel could hold the key
to the unsolved case of a missing millionaire.
[ Gunshot blasts ]
While deep in the Cambodian jungle,
secrets carved in stone may be clues
to the disappearance of an empire.
And in the bustling Bolivian capital,
a macabre tradition
fuels the faith that death itself
is only in our heads.
I'm Josh Gates.
I've traveled millions of miles
and explored over 100 countries.
Lost city, here I come.
And my favorite destinations
have epic tales to tell.
These are the stories
and the secrets
of those legendary locations.
When it comes to legendary locations,
some of my favorites are actually accommodations.
From the opulent $35,000 a night Royal Bridge Suite
at Atlantis Dubai or the historic halls
of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore,
where they invented the always delicious Singapore Sling.
Or the world's swankiest treehouse
at the Lion Sands Game Reserve in South Africa.
The world is filled with epic places
to lay your head at night, and tonight,
we've reserved a room at Malaysia's Moonlight Bungalow,
legendary not for its room service but for one famous guest
who checked in and never checked out.
[ Beeping noises ]
♪♪
Less than 100 miles from the bustling streets
of Kuala Lumpur, the Cameron Highlands
are a peaceful rainforest region covered in countless
tea plantations and strawberry fields that go on forever.
Nestled above this dense green landscape
sits the legendary Moonlight Bungalow Hotel.
Built in 1933, it's a well-preserved remnant
of this area's colonial past,
but it's also a reminder of something darker,
an event that's as mystifying today as it was
50 years ago -- this is the location
where an American named Jim Thompson
vanished into thin air.
Easter weekend, 1967.
Businessman Jim Thompson is seemingly living
the high life here as an American ex-patriot,
and he's earned it.
After graduating from Princeton, Thompson becomes an architect,
designing homes for the rich and famous.
During World War II, he serves as a spy
for the OSS, the forerunner to the CIA.
And finally, by war's end, he finds himself
in Thailand, where he makes a discovery
that will forge his destiny --
silk.
Thompson was the first foreigner in Thailand to recognize
its massive potential as an export that could be
sold around the world.
In 1948, Thompson establishes the Thai Silk Company,
which helps to jumpstart the country's silk industry.
He becomes known as the Silk King,
often courting favor with politicians
and rubbing elbows with celebrities.
Years later, behind all the glitz and glamour,
Thompson has amassed his share of enemies
in the worlds of business and politics.
It all seems to be weighing on him
when he books a weekend getaway to the Moonlight Bungalow
in neighboring Malaysia.
And then, after a church service on Easter morning,
he goes for a walk and never returns.
Now, two investigators have joined forces
to search the property for clues in hopes of solving
this cold case once and for all.
So there's many new things around the place. Correct, correct.
The house looks the same, though.
GATES: Gerard is a local guide
while Roy is a journalist and former police officer.
Both know the Moonlight Bungalow and the legend
like the backs of their hands.
At the hotel, Roy reviews
his Jim Thompson case files
while Gerard focuses his research
on the surrounding overgrown jungle trails
where Thompson was last seen.
♪♪
I've been a guide here for 35 years,
and each time I walk the jungle, it always looks different.
GATES: Retracing Thompson's steps is a challenge
since no one actually saw where he went that day.
Needless to say, there are all sorts of theories
about what might have happened.
RICHARD: Some people say he's been hit by a car.
[ Grunting ]
Some people say he was kidnapped and taken out.
Some people say eaten by a tiger.
Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention there are tigers here?
There are. [ Tiger growls ]
There are even those who suspect the CIA ordered
a hit on him. [ Gunshot blasts ]
Or that he was attacked by business rivals.
[ Grunts ]
RICHARD: It's quite easy to ambush somebody in the forest,
like, for example, if you are on a hike. [ Squeaking noise ]
I'm in the jungle -- if I want to come out and attack, it's quite easy.
GATES: But still others have a simpler theory --
that Thompson may have been injured or lost,
a distinct possibility given that the Cameron Highlands
are 275 square miles of dangerous terrain
at over 3,000 feet in elevation.
But surprisingly no one found anything of remains of him.
[ Shouting ]
GATES: Not yet, anyway, so Gerard continues
his systematic search of the unspoiled forest
one step at a time.
Back at the Moonlight Bungalow, now commonly referred to
as the Jim Thompson Bungalow, inside the very room
where the American ex-pat stayed, Roy examines
all the evidence he's collected over the years.
GATES: Thing is, Roy's found the reporting contradictory.
Some sources say that Thompson was never seen after
leaving the Moonlight Bungalow, while other witnesses claim
not only did Thompson emerge from the jungle,
but his disappearance...
might not have been an accident at all.
GATES: In the heart of Malaysia's Cameron Highlands,
two researchers investigate the grounds of the legendary
Moonlight Bungalow
where, in 1967,
business mogul Jim Thompson mysteriously disappeared.
[ Grunting ]
GATES: An expert on this densely forested region,
Gerard continues to comb the miles of jungle
that surround the lodge where Thompson
was reportedly last seen.
RICHARD: Even it's 51 years later, and the jungle is very dense.
It's not making it give up.
GATES: It may take years, but no one knows
this untamed area better than Gerard,
so if there are answers to be found out here,
he might just be our best bet.
Contrary to Gerard's belief that something happened
to Thompson in the jungle, Roy has begun to believe
an outlier theory based on controversial eyewitness testimony.
What if Thompson's walk in the woods
was all a ruse, and his actual goal was to get
off the grid for good?
At about 4:05pm,
Thompson left the bungalow.
Thompson was seen seated here,
smoking a cigarette.
And then two black cars park here.
♪♪
And Thompson willingly got into
one of the two cars.
I've, uh, finally come to the conclusion
that this is the spot where Jim Thompson
made his escape.
GATES: Since no solid evidence or remains of Jim Thompson
have ever been found in the forest...
[ Branch breaking ]
the theory of a pre-meditated escape might not
be so far-fetched.
Gerard and Roy plan to keep hunting for clues
while the historic Moonlight Bungalow
remains open for business, ideal for anyone
looking for a travel destination with a side of detective work.
Just be sure you know the way back to your room.
Six-hundred-and-forty miles to the north
is another legendary location, one that might hold the key
to an even bigger disappearance.
♪♪
Colorful and complicated.
Cambodia is a nation where ancient and modern worlds
weave together in a marvelous and mysterious tapestry.
And no place is more mysterious
than the legendary location depicted on the nation's flag,
the iconic temple of Angkor Wat,
and now, we catch up with an old friend of mine
who's on a mission to find out why the civilization
that built this monument suddenly vanished.
[ Beeping noises ]
[ Birds chirping ]
There is, perhaps, no more stunning sight in the world
than Angkor Wat at sunrise.
Travelers make the pre-dawn pilgrimage just to say
they've seen this once in their lives.
The temple of Angkor Wat is the centerpiece of
what once might have been the largest city in the world.
At the Khmer Empire's height in the 12th century,
Angkor was home to a million people
when London had just 50,000.
But in 1431, the city was suddenly abandoned.
And the reason why is the subject of hot debate.
Some historians believe
it was the result of a deadly battle,
while others claim the rise of Buddhism
forced the Hindu worshippers out.
Today, our man in Cambodia, Nick Ray,
studies every inch of this place,
looking for clues about what really happened here.
This is Angkor Wat, widely considered to be
the world's largest religious building.
It's a staggering 400 acres.
♪♪
GATES: King Suryavarman II ordered the Wat's construction
in the first half of the 12th century
as a tribute to the Hindu deity, Vishnu.
A reported 300,000 builders relied on
pulleys, rafts, bamboo scaffolding,
and the muscle of 6,000 elephants.
The temple is made up of more than 5 million
sandstone bricks, many weighing well over a ton each.
As power changed hands, king after king
expanded the city into nearly
400 bustling square miles,
and then suddenly...
everyone was gone.
To get to the bottom of how such a powerful society
might have vanished, we have to zoom in...
way in.
That's because there are clues imprinted
on the structures themselves.
The temples of Angkor are literally covered in carvings.
We've seen Hindu deities, god kings,
scenes of daily life.
GATES: These carvings and reliefs tell us
a huge amount about the history of Angkor,
but one thing they don't tell us is what happened
to this incredible civilization.
For the rest of the Angkor story,
Nick looks beyond the temples to examine a set
of carved stones whose very location
is a clue to what happened here.
In the 14th century, the Siem Reap River
flowed through here, and this bridge was
a vital link between temples in the ancient Angkor complex.
This was no ordinary bridge.
This bridge was an emergency bridge.
How do we know this? Because we see these carvings here,
and carvings were reserved for temples dedicated to the gods.
Just how bad did things got that the ancient
Khmer kings were willing to use temple stones,
sacred stones, to build a bridge?
Things must've got pretty bad.
This geographic area was and still is
prone to monsoons and rapidly rising water levels.
To have thrived here for so many centuries,
archeologists suspect that the Khmer people understood
not only how to survive floods but also
how to harness their power.
[ Thunder crashes ]
Today's researchers are just starting to understand
how they did it, but the jungles of Cambodia
are dense and riddled with landmines left over
from the country's civil war, so scientists on the ground
have had to tread carefully.
[ Explosions blast ]
GATES: In western Cambodia under centuries of growth,
the legendary location of Angkor has tightly guarded
the secret behind the disappearance of
the Khmer Empire, but investigators
like Nick Ray are on the case.
A devastating eight-year civil war
left this country a literal minefield.
[ Explosion blasts ]
Thankfully, new technology has made mapping ruins
like these safer and faster.
In 2015,
Nick took part in a revolutionary
scientific analysis of this epic landscape
using something called LIDAR, a helicopter-mounted device
that fires millions of laser beams
through the jungle canopy, recording even
the most subtle variations in surface topography.
The LIDAR scans revealed something striking --
a city integrated with a complex network
of dams, dikes, canals, bridges, and reservoirs,
all meticulously engineered to tame
their wet and wild environment,
but it seems that Mother Nature had other plans.
RAY: In the 14th century, there was a severe period
of climate change, and the whole irrigation network
began to break down -- first, there was some
severe drought, and they began to dig their canals deeper
and wider -- later followed a period of immense flooding,
and basically, the city was overwhelmed.
Facing severe overpopulation, the flooding led
to widespread famine and ultimately led to the downfall of the empire.
[ Buzzing noise ]
♪♪
GATES: Here, in the jungles of Cambodia,
the largest city in the pre-Industrial Age
thrived for centuries thanks to ingenuity
and cooperation, and today,
amidst some of the most impressive ruins on the planet,
there's still so much the past has yet to teach us.
That might be exactly
what a group of people on the other side of
the Pacific Ocean are thinking when they partake
in a most unusual tradition.
Some residents in Bolivia look to their dearly departed
for guidance, wisdom, and companionship --
I mean, they literally look to them,
face to face.
[ Beeping noises ]
♪♪
Welcome to La Paz, Bolivia,
one of South America's most sprawling urban landscapes
and the highest capital city on Earth.
I meant in altitude, not...
come on, guys.
But what makes La Paz truly legendary
is an annual festival like no other...
♪♪
...a local event that most outsiders can't quite
wrap their heads around.
[ Speaking foreign language ]
TRANSLATOR: Once again, it's the 8th of November,
the day we celebrate you.
GATES: This is Rosa, a longtime La Paz resident
and devoted participant in the Dia de los Natitas,
or the Day of the Skulls.
On this day, thousands of actual human skulls
make a pilgrimage by way of their keepers
to El Cementerio General in the center of the city.
When the procession arrives at the cemetery,
participants seek out just the right spot
to set up their skulls.
They adorn them with flowered wreaths,
hats, sunglasses,
even cigarettes,
and then they give thanks
for everything they believe the skulls do for them.
[ Speaking foreign language ]
TRANSLATOR: These are my godparents.
I've had them 8 years, ever since my husband died.
They protect my house and my family.
We love them.
[ Speaking foreign language ]
TRANSLATOR: Edgar, it's time to go to the cemetery
for the big celebration -- you, too, Maria.
GATES: Edgar and Maria are members of Rosa's family...
well, sort of.
Rosa excavated these skulls, called natitas,
meaning "little pug-nosed ones,"
from a graveyard, and now, they live with her.
TRANSLATOR: Edgar, this year, I am asking you
to keep my house safe and that you will always
watch over my children, and you, Maria,
stop playing around -- you know you scare the children sometimes.
GATES: That's right, people in La Paz
dig up graves and essentially adopt the skulls.
Some people do it with deceased family members
while others seek out the abandoned graves
of strangers.
It might seem a bit bizarre to the uninitiated,
but it's based on a beautiful belief
that the dead aren't really gone.
They're still with us, and they need a friend.
Hey, buddy.
This oddly sweet tradition
is believed to have started with the indigenous
Aymara and Quechua people. [ Choir singing ]
GATES: European settlers branded the practice heretical
and anti-Christian.
The church even banned keeping skulls
in 2003, but the locals rebelled...
[ Angry voices ]
...throwing rocks through the parish's windows
until church leaders relented.
In truth,
the Day of the Skulls isn't a rejection of Christianity
at all but rather a fusion of it with indigenous beliefs,
but there are some aspects of the Day of the Skulls
that are particularly disconcerting.
A few people here don't just believe that the skulls
contain the spirits of their ancestors.
They believe they have a life all their own.
♪♪
GATES: In the heart of the Bolivian city of La Paz,
these party people are celebrating their loved ones
with dance, music,
and human heads.
Unique to this area,
the Day of the Skulls festival is based on the belief
that the spirits of the dead still dwell
inside their skulls, and then there are those
who take it a bit further.
Okay, a lot further.
[ Speaking foreign language ]
TRANSLATOR: What shocked me most is that she can perform miracles.
She takes care of our house, she hangs out,
but she can move around -- she can even dance.
It's unbelievable.
Okay, I'm gonna have to draw the line at skulls
doing laundry and the Macarena.
As more and more people pour into the cemetery,
there's a familiar face -- Rosa,
who has finally found just the right place
for her beloved Edgar and Maria.
[ Speaking foreign language ]
TRANSLATOR: And even though I didn't know them before,
I thank them for living in my house now
and for always being with me.
I might be scared of life,
but I'm not scared of death, not at all.
The whole hangin' out with skulls thing
may be unusual, but the event reveals
that death is no match for the human spirit
and that perfect strangers can teach us a lot,
even from the other side.
But perhaps the most important thing we might learn
is that what was once lost may not be gone forever.
Whether it's the story of a missing person
in the mysterious jungles surrounding a historic hotel
or in the sprawling ruins that echo an ancient civilization,
or an annual festival that brings the dead back to life.
The past is all around us -- you just have to know
where to look.
I'm Josh Gates.
Travel adventurously, and I'll see you next time
on "Legendary Locations."